Loving Deeply through our Gifts

Seeing the twinkling lights on the tree and strung across the mantle, our stockings hanging over the fireplace, and the nativity scene resting quietly below our ‘gather’ picture, it felt as if Christmas were ushered in like an old friend.

It’s a simple set-up at our house, but I don’t believe you need much to welcome and celebrate the birth of Christ.

After pulling our Christmas tree out of the basement and placing it next to the fireplace in our living room, after putting up the few other decorations we have for the holiday, the hustle this season is branded by began to set in at our house.

It was only about a day later that our minds were overtaken by the pressure of gift-giving and making sure each person on our list had a gift under our modestly decorated tree.

Whether or not we feel pressured by the expectations of others, even ourselves, no one can deny the emphasis we place on gift-giving during the holiday season or the extremes we reach for in trying to create the perfect Christmas.

This part of the year marked by gathering, fellowship, hot chocolate, and rejoicing at the birth of the savior is all too quickly overshadowed by these expectations.

The quiet, stillness of the manger and the humble beginning of Jesus as a small, fragile baby somehow don’t seem to fit perfectly under our Christmas trees.

Of course, the practice of gift-giving is not under fire here. When we give from a place of genuine generosity to the people in our life as a representation of how much we love, value, and cherish them, our focus is on showing those people how we feel, not on how good we look in the process.

The Christmas season seems a time of exceptional generosity, deeper love, and a show of amazing compassion from all people, and not simply those who follow Jesus.

We give more of ourselves, our things, our resources during this time of year. We open our hearts to our fellow travelers, going out of our way to show them we care, extending our hands and our help.

Generosity, compassion, love, and kindness are not the only marks of the Christmas season. We open our hearts to strangers but push those closest to us away in our hustle to make our Christmas better than the one next door.

At what point does our ritual of gift-giving, of showing our love for the people around us become less about the birth of the savior and the ultimate gift He is to all of us, and more about the presents wrapped in shiny paper under the tree?

Are we more focused on buying the biggest, best gift because it makes us look good, than we are on showing the love of Jesus, the tiny baby in the manger, to people?

Part of the tradition of giving gifts represents the gift we’ve already received in Jesus, but I am keenly aware going into Christmas this year of the gifts we can’t put into a box or cover in pretty wrapping paper.

As I’ve reflected on past Christmases this year what’s clear is, I don’t always remember the cool gadgets or toys I received on Christmas morning over the years. But I do remember the moments I shared with my family and friends.

I remember the breakfast my family shares together after the gift-giving and the phone call we always get from my grandmother asking when we’ll be getting to her house for lunch. I remember making cookies on Christmas Eve and watching White Christmas as the fire crackles in the background.

I remember spending the afternoon with my cousins, aunts, and uncles, talking and laughing and eating together. I remember reading the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2 in the Bible before opening gifts.

What if this Christmas wasn’t marked by the most amazing gift on Christmas morning, but instead, marked by the gift of our presence for the ones we love?

Choosing to spend intentional time present with your family, rather than scrolling social media, crafting your own perfect Christmas day post, thinking of your schedule with only half a mind on the people surrounding you in the moment is the best gift we can give this year.

A gift, thoughtfully and carefully, selected for the ones we love would be received very differently if we handed it to them and immediately left the room for them to open it alone. We give these types of gifts partly because we like to see the reaction to them.

Did they like it? Was it a surprise? Were they expecting it?

Part of the joy of gift-giving is the careful consideration that is put into choosing the gift, which is lost when we inundate people with ten or twenty other, less carefully, chosen gifts.

I’m not trying to tell you how to do your Christmas shopping. But as you go about it this year, I would encourage you to think deeply about the gifts you give to others, and consider that the best gift you might give is showing the love of Jesus.